The Fighter
by A.K.A. Producer Sam
Summary: Damon has a lot to deal with. He's a twenty-one year old construction worker, who can barely afford to make ends meet for him and his younger troubled sister. So, he fights to release and control his anger. At one of his fights he sees Elena in the crowd...Will there be love?. Light Humor, Drama and angst.
1. Chapter 1

It starts with a 5 mile jog that morning. Damon Salvatore wakes up at 4 o'clock in the morning and does a few stretches before he starts his run. Damon finds running to be theraputic between his job, his pain in the ass fifteen year old sister who is always getting into some kind of trouble and his quick temper he needs an outlit and that outlit just happened to be 5 mile jog around the town. Damon plugs his iPOD in and puts on his running playlist. When he gets back from running at 6, he has little over a half hour before he has to wake his sister caroline up for school and he has to go to work. Damon does push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. At 6:40 (he was feeling genrous today) he wakes his sister up, who is less happy about the rude awkwakening.

"Five more minutes," she whines

"I gave you five more minutes, now unless you want to run to school, I suggest that you get out of bed and get ready," caroline sits up although she's complaining, she gets dressed for school. Damon is sitting in his crappy, beat up, piece of shit, chevy chrysler. caroline storms out of the house and slams the door shut.

"can't you get a better car," she asks

"News flash caroline, we don't have any money and the money we do have goes towards more important things like food, clothes, and bills" he said "And which one do you want a new car that doesn't crap out as soon as we hit the hill or electricity?"

"electricity," caroline sighs the two drive away. And as if on que. The crappy chrysler stops at the hill.

"You know what to do," Damon says as he gets out to push the car. caroline slides over to the drivers seat and tries to get the car to work. Once they get it over the hill, the car is able to work and Damon continues to drive.

**Line Break**

After he drops his sister off, Damon heads to his job. Damon has many jobs, during the day he is a construction worker. ever since he could remember, Damon was able to build things. In old family photos Damon is wearing a toy hard hat and working on lego houses, one time he built a whole entire town and named it Damon's village. It was something Damon liked to do. Building things helped him relax after a long day. Right now he was building a three story house with his team. His boss, a thirty year old british man named elijah Mikealson, greeted him.

"Hey, Damon,"

"Hey, elijah," Damon says. Damon likes his boss. Most of the time, Damon and elijah don't talk. And that's what Damon liked about his job. It was quiet. For the most part. The team of five work in silent until about lunchtime, when Damon gets a call from the Sherif.

"Uh-Oh" Damon said. He opens his phone and clears his throat."Hello," he says.

"Sorry, to bother you at work Mr. Salvatore, but I'm afraid we caught your sister skipping school with her friends to go swimming," Damon could here his sister in the background shouting at someone "could you come get her?" Damon sighs

"Yeah, I'll get her," Damon grumbles snapping his phone shut he turns to his boss. "I gotta go bail my sister out of jail for skipping school," he sighs embarrasingly.

"Let her sit in there for awhile," elijah says "It'll teach her a leason,"

"If I do that, she'll never shut up about it," he says "Plus, she's really driving the sherif insane,"

"Alright, go," elijah waves.

Damon's second job is to take care of his little sister caroline. When Damon was eighteen (he's twenty one now) his parents both died in a car wreck leaving him to take care of his twelve year old sister, since they didn't have any other living realitives Damon didn't want his sister to live in a foster home so he took her in. Before caroline turned into a teenager, she was easy to take care of, she and Damon had a really close relationship. But, now caroline is becoming to much to handle. Damon arrives to the police station. It takes him almost a half hour to get there because his car crapped out on him twice. When he gets there a very annoyed, pissed off Sherif looks up at him. Placing a phamplet down on his desk. Damon looked.

"Addiction for teens," he reads almost laughing "Look my sister has a drink now and again, but, she's not an alcoholic,"

"Damon, caroline is sitting in there with a 0.11 blood alcohol level. She's fifteen she shouldn't be sitting in there with a 0.11 blood alcohol level, Damon" she scolds. Damon's face turns red in embarassement. He coughs and rubs his neck.

"Where is she?"

"In the back," Damon heads to the back and see's caroline sitting on the bench. She stands up

"Oh, Damon, thank God, this place is disgusting," she says "Please, tell me you're here to bail me out," Damon smirks.

"I don't know, maybe I should leave you in here for another night-" Damon begins but his sister cuts him off.

"No," caroline screeches. "There is a homeless drunk guy who has been hitting on me for the last hour, where the hell where you?,"Damon shrugs.

"My car crapped out on me, twice,"

"can you please bail me out," she begs. The sherif comes and unlocks the gate. The two are walking out of the police station.

"There is no way I'm going to Addiction for teens, I am not an alcoholic" she stomps

"caroline, you are on your second strike," Damon says gently grabbing her arm. "On your third they put you in jail," he snaps "You're the only person I have left and I am not losing you just because of your dumbassedness," caroline studied her brother's face. A look of sadness washed over him. She knew the death of their parents affected the both of them. She knew her brother did love her, and she wished she could explain to them why she was this way but she couldn't. She didn't even know.

"Fine," she willingly agreed. They both hugged.

**Line Break**

After a nice evening with his sister Damon allowed caroline to go to her friends house for a reason. This is a secret he has kept to himself for almost a year. At first it started out as away to get rid of his anger. But, when his now boxing manager Alaric signed him up for a fight. He couldn't refuse. What surprised Damon the most is that he actually won. What surprised him even more was that he got paid for it. He was able to pay for his sister's ballet lessons with his cash winnings, right now he was saving up for a new car. He was so close too. Tonight, he was going against the toughest fighter in the underground league. Damon was greeted by Alaric the moment he arrived.

"There's my champion fighter, what took you so long, I was beginning to worry that you wouldn't show up,"

"Sorry, I was spending time with my sister," he explains.

"You have to tell her," Ric says "What if something bad happens to you?"

"Huh, probably should've thought about that," Damon says "Look, I just need extra cash to be able to afford some nice things for my sister, if fighting is the way I gotta do it. Then fine. I'll fight," Damon says. Ric pats Damon's shoulder a little and smiles.

"You're a good brother, Damon," he tells him. The announcer starts to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Let's give a big round of applause for Damon 'The Monster' Salvatore,"

**A small introduction. Sorry, if some of the words weren't capitilized. My laptop keyboard sucks and i can't capitlize certain letters I have to copy and paste. **


	2. Chapter 2

Elena Gilbert was down in the college rec-room with her friends. Bonnie, Tyler, Matt and Stefan. They where playing pool and it was her turn. Stefan graciously and lovingly stood behind her helping her with her pool skills, since she sucked at the game. Tyler and Matt where chuckling.

"Oh, Shut up," Stefan says. Elena smirks. Elena was a sophomore at Columbia University and so far she was loving New York. She of course, like any teenager leaving home for the first time was scared. But, once she settled down and adjusted to the fast pace life that is New York she fell in love. Meeting Stefan helped as well. She had met Stefan during her first week here, she was wandering to her dorm and saw a passed out drunk (naked) Stefan Duray in front of her dorm. Tyler and Matt left him there as a joke and written a bunch of dirty words on his body. She gave him a towel and let him stay the night. The next morning, Stefan and Elena started talking and instantly hit it off. Even though they met in the most bizzare way, Stefan and Elena still see it as fate.

"Guess, what I have," Rings a cheerful bubbly voice. The group turned to see a pracitcally running Bonnie Bennet trying to make her way through the rough crowd. "Alright, Move!" she shouts. They do. Bonnie trips a little up the staires and Matt catches her. "Thanks," she blushes

"Bonnie, what's up?" Elena asks

"So, you know that really hot guy, Jeremy, that I've been seeing right,"

"Yes," They all moan. They moan because that's all Bonnie talks about.

"Anyways his dad is the manager of an underground MME ring or something, that's not important, what is- is that he scored us 4 tickets to the fight and he thinks it's about time he meets the infamous Stelena" Bonnie says incredibly fast. Tyler looked.

"Stelena?"

"Stefan and Elena," Matt explains hitting him in the arm "Stupid" Tyler wraps his arms around Matt and lifts him up off the ground

"Say it," Tyler says

"Uncle," Matt cries. Elena rolls her eyes as she watches Tyler drop Matt anyways. She smiles. She had to admit, she loved and cared about Stefan's two baffoon best friends. They always knew how to cheer Elena up when she was upset or stressed. Despite being goofy they where really sweet and protective of her. They welcomed her the moment stefan introduced her to them.

"Speaking of Jeremy-" Bonnie says looking up. They look to see a good looking tall dark haired young man standing at the enterence obviously looking for some, he smiles when he sees Bonnie. "I gotta go," she leaves. Stefna pulls Elena close and smiles they kiss and watch Matt and Tyler fight.

"So, do you want to go to an MMA Fight?"

"Sure, it might be fun," Elena shrugs. Too be honest, she didn't really see the appeal of fighting. But, she always made Stefan do things she liked (Not that she made him, he wanted to be apart of Elena's life...even if it was a boring museam opening or one of her story readings) and it wasn't fair to the relationship. Stefan should be able to do fun things if he wants to too. And Elena will happily go along with it.

"Everyone," Bonnie says the gang looks up to see Bonnie and Jeremy holding hands "This is Jeremy," Everyone-including Elena- was tense. She was nervous because she didn't know how the boys would react to Jeremy. But, of course it's Stefan to come to the rescue. He puts his hand out, Elena sees a look of fear and curiousity wash over Jeremy. He didn't know what to do, Elena smiled at his reaction. Little did Jeremy know that once you got to know Stefan, he was the sweetest puppy on the planet. Jeremy slowly extended his arm out and shakes hands with Stefan. Jeremy exhales slowly and they both smile.

"Nice to meet you," Stefan says

"Same here," Jeremy looks "Now, lets see if I have this right you are Stefan," Stefan nods. Jeremy points to Matt "Matt," he looks at Tyler "Tyler" A confused look appeared across Jeremy's face as he looked at Elena. "I'm sorry, I didn't think Bonnie has ever mention you," Elena shoots a look at Bonnie, who bites her lip and blushes. A smile appears across Jeremy's face "I"m just kidding, Elena, of course I know who you are," Jeremy hugs elena. Elena's blushing a little. He was charming, she had to admit that, and sweet.

"Wanna play a game?" Elena asks. Jeremy smirks.

"Be prepared to lose, Gilbert,"

**Line Break**

The night was quiet and warm as Stefan and Elena made there way back to the dorm room. the two held hands. Elena clutched onto Stefan's arm. God, could this be anymore perfect? she silently asked herself.

"So, Jeremy seems really nice," Elena says moving her bang back.

"Yeah," Stefan grumbles

"You okay?" Elena looks. Stefan blinks.

"HMM,"

"You okay?" Elena asks again

"Yeah," he clears his throat "Sorry, I've just had a lot on my mind," he says

"What's wrong?" She asks sweetly.

"Nothing," he grumbles. This usually isn't like Stefan, he tells her everything. They are silent the rest of the way to Elena's dorm where Stefan hugs her tightly.

"I love you, Elena,"

"I love you too,"

The next day Elena hardly saw Stefan or the guys. So, she hung out with Bonnie and Jeremy at the Mystic Cafe', Bonnie was standing over Jeremy with her arms wrapped around him. Jeremy sucked on his smoothie. He didn't seem to mind having Bonnie stand above him like that.

"So, Elena, you excited for the fight tonight," Jeremy asks

"Very," Elena says her mind wasn't a clingy girlfriend. One who always needed to know where her boyfriend was, one who can't function or survive with out him. She was just worried. Stefan had been acting very distant last night. And thats not like him at all.

"What did I miss?" Stefan asked kissing Elena.

"Hey, there you are," she says

"What'd I miss," Stefan asks

"We are talking about the fight," Bonnie says "Little miss Elena here was having boyfriend withdraws, "

"Was not," Elena says. Stefan laughs and looks at Elena with his puppy dog eyes and a pout "I was not,"

"Sure, you weren't," Stefan says pulling her close and resting his arm around her shoulder. Elena smiled, even though she was worried/ furious at Stefan. She still missed him.

"I'm excited for the fight," Stefan smiles taking a drink of Elena's water "I used to be a wrestler until I tore my UCL out, when someone slammed me hard onto the ground, ended my career," Stefan doesn't talk about his wrestling career much, and Elena knew that. But she couldn't help but smile when he did. Staying mad at him was impossible.

That night. Elena's worry disappeared when Stefan showed up with a boquet of roses, and the movie Pitch Perfect. He had the most adorable smile on his face when Elena opened the door and he held up the movie saying "I know how much you love this movie," So, now. Elena and Stefan where wearing their onesies. Elena a unicorn one, Stefan a batman one. Snuggled on the couch, with a bowl of popcorn between them. Laughing at Fat Amy's horizontal running and the banter between the two judges. Elena steals a glance at Stefan during the scene where Beca is watching the Breakfast club only to see him crying a little. Later he claims he went to put popcorn in his mouth and he accidently put it in his eye and they where watering. Elena of course, laughs at his excuse and Stefan starts to tickle her. Elena kicks him in the stomach and he falls.

"Damn, what was that for,"

"You know I'm ticklish," she says "That was all you," The movie ended on a happy note. And so did they. There was nothing wrong. She had no idea why she was so worried in the first place.

**28 follows, 8 favorites and 9 reviews for the first chapter. Thank You all so much, I will work my ass off to make this awesome and enjoyable. Completly forgot to mention this is AU. And forgive my errors, no beta. What to expect from the next chapter. Expect it Saturday, Sunday, Monday or the latest Tuesday. **

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Shit," he curses " He was going to be late.

It's perfect.


	3. Chapter 3

He almost fell apart at work today. After the fight, Damon suffered a possiblebroken rib, a bruised hand and his knee was pounding with pain. He was lucky Elijah let him leave work at three to take his sister to her first Addiction for Teens meeting, he wishes his sister good luck before she leaves. Caroline tells him that she loves him and is sorry for disappointing him. And she leaves sadly. Sore,he takes a cold bath to soothe his body. It takes him ten minutes to get out of the tub, his arms shake the entire time.

Unfortunatly, Damon had little time to rest. His biggest fight yet was tonight. Some rich dude was betting on him, how much? 2.2 million. And he needed that money. Although it would be hard to explain a new car and possibly a new house. He didn't want a girl as pretty as Caroline to be living in a shitty neighborhood where gunfights happened almost every night, one where Caroline got shot in the shoulder because Damon wasn't home to protect her. Luckily a neighbor had saw what happened and ran to help her. He had to do this...for her. Sure, she may be a pain in the ass once in awhile, but, Caroline is a good girl-she's just a little lost. But, she still deserved a house without bullets in the door. Damon pops an ibuprofin in, putting sweats on- he puts an ice pack on his knee and a hot rag on his forehead. He passes out.

Damon wakes up at 6: 30. Eyes wide, he shoots out of bed. "Shit!" He was late "Fuck" Skipping his shower and dinner, he sprints out the door, holding his knee, he prays his car won't take a shit out on him...and it does. So, ignoring all the pain he was in, Damon gets out and starts to push the car. Reminding himself that it was all for Caroline.

**Line Break**

"Do I know you from somewhere?" The overweight bouncer wearing a fedral boobie inspector shirt asks the dark haired boy in the sunglasses. It's been a long hour for the group of four and even longer for the some 500 people who were leaning forward to watch the dark haired boy and the fat bouncer. Waiting for some action outside the club. The boy swallows, nervously trying to keep his cool hoping someone wouldn't recognize him. The mild September night brought an unsually large crowd he had to admit that, but, it didn't surprise him. His old man knew how to advertise-if he didn't, well he wouldn't be the richest man in New York then. The bouncer looks at the young group of adults.

"I.D's?" The four flash their I'Ds the boy being a young con artist was smart enough to use a fake name. The bouncer points to the door, silently telling them to go in. After getting popcorn and snow cones his friends, they sat down.

Elena was watching Jeremy feed Bonnie some of his snow cone. Bonnie giggles when Jeremy touches her nose with his spoon. Elena was comfortably snuggled next to Stefan. After last night, Elena had no idea why she was worried in the first place. Until she heard Stefan's phone vibrate.

"I'm gonna go outside where it's quieter," he whispers to Elena kissing her on the cheek.

Stefan makes his way outside, he pulls his sunglasses on and his baseball cap. He accidently bumps into a tall muscular, dark haired man he recognizes from the posters.

"Hey, you're the monster," he says. The man smirks.

"The one and only, look can you keep a hush, hush, I gotta get in there my manager is probably having a heart attack in there. Cause I'm running a little bit late, so shhh," Irrogant-prick. Stefan thought. Stefan looks to see Matt and Tyler jumping and waving him over.

"Hey man, good luck," he says. They both leave. Stefan sprints to his friends. No, they don't know that he's rich(Sorry, was rich) no one does. And Stefan would like to keep it that way.

"Did you get the ring?" Stefan asks Matt and Tyler nod really fast

"Yeah, bro,"Tyler says opening the tiny velvet box. A beautiful diamond ring, Stefan smirks. It was absolutly perfect.

"Dude, she is going to flip," Matt says patting Stefan's shoulder, he smirks.

"Not that I'm excited, cause I am, but you and Elena have only been dating for a year and you're both sophomores, are you absolutly sure you want to marry her?"

"More then anything in the world," Stefan says without hesistating.

"That's amazing," Matt says The two hug Stefan "Bro, you gotta get back in there," he adds "Don't keep your future fianace' waiting any longer," Stefan blushes when Tyler hands him the ring.

"Thank you," he tells them honestly. He is supposed to be excited and happy right now, he was going to be proposing to the love of his life soon. But, walking back. He looks at the club and feels nothing but anger and resentment towards his father. He hates the lying. He walks back in and sits next to Elena who snuggled up to him. He was so lucky to have her, he loved Elena so much and hated lying to her. He doesn't deserve someone who is so great. He kisses her.

"What was that for?" she asks a little out of breath. Stefan held her hand.

"I love her," he tells her. She smiles.

"I-"

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a round of applause for Damon 'The Monster' Salvatore!"

**Line Break**

Damon closes his eyes and takes in the moment. He was listening to the crowd, the music pumping up his system, he steps out, his manager waiting for him.

"You see that kid in the sunglasses up in the middle section?" he follows Alaric's finger and spots the boy he bumped into in the alley. He is sitting next to a very pretty brunette girl, she was eating a snow cone. The boy didn't even look like he was paying attention to her, while the other couple next to them couldn't keep their hands off each other. They where practically having sex. Damon watches the girl, she's blushing and uncomfrotable, the boy is elsewhere in thoughts. "That's Guiseppe's kid," Ric says. He shrugs.

"Why should I care?"

"Guiseppe is the richest man in New York, if his son is here," Ric looks around the room and swallows. "So, is he"

"Now everyone give a round of applause for Kol- The Crusher- Griener!" Damon looked up when Kol entered the rink. He swallowed a little. Kol was the monster, not him, Kol...hell his arms where the size of him let alone.

"Oh Shit," What did he get himself into?

Elena couldn't beleive how big Kol was. She thought it was very ironic that a tiny person like DAmon was called 'The Monster' compared to Kol, he was a beast. She couldn't help but feel a little bad for Damon. He was going to humulate himself in front of thousands of people. The Ref blew his whistle and the two took a stand. Elena held Stefan's hand. She was nervous for him.

Damon took the first swing. In an ammatuer MMA fight. The techniques are a simpe Ground and Pound and Clinch Fighting. Ground and Pound is where the opponents try to pound each other to the ground. Clinch Fighting is where the other opponent has put the opposite opponent in a lock like a bear hug or wrist lock. Kol demonstrated that very well, causing his knee to make an unpleasent sound. Damon chooses to ignore it. Kol starts to punch him. In the face, in the gut. He has no idea how he was going to hide these from Caroline, he needed to do this for her, he reminded himself. Ignoring all the pain he was in. Damon takes one powerful swing, knocking Kol to the ground.

Everyone gasps. No one in the audience could believe that someone as tiny as Damon could knock down someone as big as Kol. In one punch!. Elena couldn't believe what she just saw. The ref starts to count.

Everyone cheers when the ref holds up his arm. He Won!.

**34 followers, 12 favs, and 18 reviews. Thank you all so much. Always appreciate it. It's only going to get more interesting. **

**A very short chapter. Don't worry about Stelena they will be over soon. Stefan's back story will be introduced in the next few chapters. I am very sorry for the first chapter with using Damon like every other word because I looked back and I did. I am so so sorry, I am not very good in 3rd person point of view I'm just trying something new. I am also not very good with describing things. That's why the fight wasn't very vivid or long. **

**Again sorry for the mistakes no beta. I'll try to update by Saturday or Sunday. **


End file.
